6 Imams Removed from US Flight

MINNEAPOLIS, (AP) -Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.

The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m., airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.

A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused.

“They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way,” said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif., he said.

Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam.

This story, as reported by the Associated Press, is making its way across the Islamic world. The knee-jerk reaction will be as expected, with CAIR leading the pack.

There are two problems here. To a minor extent, it’s the ignorance of the airline passengers and crew of the religious rituals of a minority religion. The major problem is that the imams showed an utter lack of common sense.

Islam is a practical religion, based on an understanding of human nature. Fasting for Ramadan—one of the pillars of Islam—is obligatory to all Muslims, for instance. But Muslims who are traveling, who are at war, who are pregnant, nursing, or ill can avoid fasting until a more convenient time, even if it’s years in the future. Ritual ablution—wudu—is required before prayer and usually involves washing in water. But if water isn’t available, sand, rocks, or clean soil can be used (turning the ablutions into tayammun). If prayers are missed for some good reason, they can be said at a later time, with no sin.

The imams had an obligation to pray at a prescribed time, there’s no debate about that. But they also had an obligation to live in the real world, where 141 non-Muslims were certain to become concerned, frightened, by a group of men, dressed differently, standing up at their seats, making strange (to the passengers, at least) movements, and speaking in a foreign language. Especially after 9/11, especially with all media talking about terrorism, the imams act was stupid. They chose to assert their duty to pray, they could have delayed to a later and more appropriate time.

Whether it was simple stupidity or an attempt to don the robes of a martyr, these imams get no sympathy from me. Nor does CAIR rise any higher in my estimation for supporting them.